Lake Macquarie, the Central Coast & Newcastle
Coloured & polished concrete
Coloured driveways and entries, and honed or polished floors through alfrescos and outdoor kitchens — the Norah Head alfresco runs from the house to the pool in one finish.
Coloured concrete
Colour comes from an oxide through the mix rather than a coating on top, so it goes all the way through the slab and cannot wear off the surface. You get a solid, even tone instead of the stone-and-paste pattern of exposed aggregate.
It suits entries, paths and driveways where you want the concrete to sit quietly against the house rather than be the feature. The oxides we use are the same ones behind our exposed mixes — black, pewter, arctic and others.
Honed & polished floors
Honing grinds the cured surface back and smooths it, which on a mix with stone in it opens up the aggregate and gives a stone-terrazzo look. How far it is taken decides whether it reads matte and honed or fully polished.
It works best where a floor runs continuously — an alfresco out to a pool, an outdoor kitchen, a garage floor — because there is no tile grid or joint pattern interrupting it. At Norah Head the alfresco runs straight from the house to the pool in one finish.
- Oxide-coloured driveways, entries and paths
- Honed and polished floors, matte through to polished
- Alfresco and outdoor-kitchen slabs
- Continuous finishes from inside out to the pool
Deciding between them
Coloured concrete is poured and finished in one visit. Honed and polished work needs the slab cured first and then a separate grinding stage, so it is two stages and a longer program — worth knowing before you plan around it.
If you are weighing exposed against coloured against plain against honed, there is a full side-by-side in the journal covering where each one suits and what it asks of you afterwards.
Jobs like this
Common questions
- What's the difference between honed and polished concrete?
- Both grind the cured surface back to open up the stone in the mix. Honed stops at a matte finish; polished carries on to a higher sheen. How far it's taken is a choice you make, and it changes the look more than the durability.
- Does coloured concrete fade?
- The colour is an oxide through the mix rather than a coating, so it can't wear off the surface the way a paint or stain would. Like any concrete outdoors, the surface weathers over years and sealing helps it hold its depth.
- Can you polish an existing slab?
- Sometimes — it depends on what the slab is, how thick the surface layer is and what's in the mix. It needs a look on site before anyone promises a result, because grinding into an unknown slab can expose things you don't want exposed.
- Can the same finish run inside and outside?
- Yes, and it's one of the better reasons to choose it. At Norah Head the honed alfresco runs continuously from the house out to the pool, with no tile grid or joint pattern breaking it up.